Father Of 11yo victim of Stockholm terror attack may sue the Swedish government

On Tuesday, the suspect behind last years terrorist attack in Stockholm, Sweden, was formally charged with terrorist offenses. On April 7, 2017, Rakhmat Akilov, the suspect, who was born in Uzbekistan, hijacked a lorry and deliberately into crowds along Drottninggatan (Queen Street), killing five and seriously wounding 14 others. Among them, 11-year-old Ebba Åkerlund, who was on her way home after school.

Now, almost 10 months later, her father is considering suing the Swedish government over lack of security on Drottninggatan, where “concrete lions” are standing to supposedly prevent such an event.

Thomas Bodström, a former politician for the Social Democratic Party and the father’s lawyer, told SVT that the lions are too light and stand too far apart from each other.

In the days following the attack, Stockholm announced that more lions would be put out to strategically make vehicle-ramming attacks “impossible”, according to Expressen.

When asked about these recent measures to secure citizens lives, Thomas Bodström asks: “Why weren’t this done earlier? You don’t need much fantasy to think that things like this actually can happen. These people — Ebba — wouldn’t have died if these measures had been taken in time,” the lawyer said.